Man Arrested in Fla. Girl's 1993 Disappearance

Police have arrested a 42-year-old man and charged him with murder in the case of a Florida girl who vanished almost 20 years ago.

Andrea Gail Parsons, 10, of Port Salerno, Fla., was last seen on July 11, 1993, shortly after 6 p.m. She had just purchased candy and soda at a grocery store when she waved to a local couple as they drove by on an area street and honked, police said.

Today, Martin County Sheriff's Department officials arrested Chester Duane Price, 42, who recently lived in Haleyville, Ala., and charged him with first-degree murder and kidnapping of a child under the age of 13, after he was indicted by a grand jury.

Price was acquainted with Andrea at the time of her disappearance, and also knew another man police once eyed as a potential suspect, officials told ABC News affiliate WPBF in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Handout/Martin County Sheriff's Office

"The investigation has concluded that Price abducted and killed Andrea Gail Parsons," read a sheriff's department news release. "Tragically, at this time, her body has not been recovered."

The sheriff's department declined to specify what evidence led to Price's arrest for the crime after 19 years or to provide details to ABCNews.com beyond the prepared news release.

Reached by phone, a sheriff's department spokeswoman said she did not know whether Price was yet represented by a lawyer.

Price was being held at the Martin County Jail without bond and was scheduled to make his first court appearance via video link at 10:30 a.m. Friday.

In its news release, the sheriff's department cited Price's "extensive criminal history with arrests dating back to 1991" that included arrests for cocaine possession, assault, sale of controlled substance, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violation of domestic violence injunction.

"The resolve to find Andrea and get answers surrounding the circumstances of her disappearance has never wavered as detectives and others assigned have dedicated their careers to piecing this puzzle together," Martin County Sheriff Robert L. Crowder said in a prepared statement. "In 2011, I assigned a team of detectives, several 'fresh sets of eyes,' to begin another review of the high-volume of evidence that had been previously collected in this case."

A flyer dating from the time of Andrea's disappearance, and redistributed by the sheriff's office after the arrest, described her as 4-foot-11 with hazel eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing blue jean shorts, a dark shirt and clear plastic sandals, according to the flyer.

The sheriff's department became involved in the case after Andrea's mother, Linda Parsons, returned home from work around 10 p.m. on July 11, 1993, to find her daughter missing and called police, according to the initial sheriff's report.

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High-powered ‘Fix the Debt’ group draws attention, scrutiny in Washington

In the discussions about the “fiscal cliff” consuming Washington, a powerful new group stands out, touting the virtue of bipartisanship and shared sacrifice.

The business leaders who set up the Campaign to Fix the Debt appear nearly every day on network talk shows and have won coveted time with President Obama in pushing for increased tax revenue, reduced government spending, and changes to Social Security and Medicare. The group’s leaders met Wednesday with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and returned, yet again, to the White House.

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Kai Kai, Jia Jia thrill visitors on Giant Panda Forest opening day

SINGAPORE: The two pandas from China, Kai Kai and Jia Jia, thrilled hordes of visitors on the opening day of the Giant Panda Forest on Thursday.

They were active, moving playfully around their enclosure, as visitors snapped photographs and filmed every action of the pandas.

Some visitors were at the Singapore Zoo, where the Panda Forest is located, before 8am - one hour before the panda's enclosure opened.

Each adult pays an extra S$5 while a child pays an additional S$3 to visit the pandas.

Each ticket holder has 15 minutes in the enclosure.

Tickets for the first few viewing sessions were quickly snapped up.

For many families, the outing to the Giant Panda Forest was a school holiday treat.

One mother, Madam Joycelyn Chew, said the visit was a reward for her two young daughters who had done well in their school examinations.

Another visitor, Mr Anond Suwanarat, was there at about 9am, hoping to be among the first to see the pandas.

But the tickets had already been snapped up.

He and his family managed to meet the pandas at 10.40am.

Business analyst Ms Manjula Abeyasinghe, who is on a holiday in Singapore with her family, cancelled plans to go to the Universal Studios Singapore when she heard that the panda enclosure would open to the public on Thursday.

The Giant Panda Forest is the first of the River Safari attractions to open to the public. The rest of the park is expected to be ready by early next year.

- CNA/ir

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Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again.

Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite called cordyceps means hope—and big money. Chinese markets sell the "golden worm," or "Tibetan mushroom"—thought to cure ailments from cancer to asthma to erectile dysfunction—for up to $50,000 (U.S.) per pound. Patients, following traditional medicinal practices, brew the fungal-infected caterpillar in tea or chew it raw.

Now the folk medicine is getting scientific backing. A new study published in the journal RNA finds that cordycepin, a chemical derived from the caterpillar fungus, has anti-inflammatory properties.

"Inflammation is normally a beneficial response to a wound or infection, but in diseases like asthma it happens too fast and to too high of an extent," said study co-author Cornelia H. de Moor of the University of Nottingham. "When cordycepin is present, it inhibits that response strongly."

And it does so in a way not previously seen: at the mRNA stage, where it inhibits polyadenylation. That means it stops swelling at the genetic cellular level—a novel anti-inflammatory approach that could lead to new drugs for cancer, asthma, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiovascular-disease patients who don't respond well to current medications.

From Worm to Pill

But such new drugs may be a long way off. The science of parasitic fungi is still in its early stages, and no medicine currently available utilizes cordycepin as an anti-inflammatory. The only way a patient could gain its benefits would by consuming wild-harvested mushrooms.

De Moor cautions against this practice. "I can't recommend taking wild-harvested medications," she says. "Each sample could have a completely different dose, and there are mushrooms where [taking] a single bite will kill you."

Today 96 percent of the world's caterpillar-fungus harvest comes from the high Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan range. Fungi from this region are of the subspecies Ophiocordyceps sinensis, locally known as yartsa gunbu ("summer grass, winter worm"). While highly valued in Chinese traditional medicine, these fungi have relatively low levels of cordycepin. What's more, they grow only at elevations of 10,000 to 16,500 feet and cannot be farmed. All of which makes yartsa gunbu costly for Chinese consumers: A single fungal-infected caterpillar can fetch $30.

Brave New Worm

Luckily for researchers, and for potential consumers, another rare species of caterpillar fungus, Cordyceps militaris, is capable of being farmed—and even cultivated to yield much higher levels of cordycepin.

De Moor says that's not likely to discourage Tibetan harvesters, many of whom make a year's salary in just weeks by finding and selling yartsa gunbu. Scientific proof of cordycepin's efficacy will only increase demand for the fungus, which could prove dangerous. "With cultivation we have a level of quality control that's missing in the wild," says de Moor.

"There is definitely some truth somewhere in certain herbal medicinal traditions, if you look hard enough," says de Moor. "But ancient healers probably wouldn't notice a 10 percent mortality rate resulting from herbal remedies. In the scientific world, that's completely unacceptable." If you want to be safe, she adds, "wait for the medicine."

Ancient Chinese medical traditions—which also use ground tiger bones as a cure for insomnia, elephant ivory for religious icons, and rhinoceros horns to dispel fevers—are controversial but popular. Such remedies remain in demand regardless of scientific advancement—and endangered animals continue to be killed in order to meet that demand. While pills using cordycepin from farmed fungus might someday replace yartsa gunbu harvesting, tigers, elephants, and rhinos are disappearing much quicker than worms.

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Powerball Numbers Drawn for Nearly $580M Jackpot

5-23-16-22-29-Powerball 6: Those are the winning numbers for an estimated $579 million Powerball jackpot -- the biggest in history.

After a feverish day that saw hopeful players buying tickets at the rate of 131,000 every minute, lottery officials in Orlando, Fla., drew the winning sequence shortly after 11 p.m.

The results likely will be announced sometime after 2 a.m. Thursday morning.

Identifying the winner, however, could take days -- if there is a winner.

A prior drawing last Saturday night produced no winner. That fact, plus the doubling in price of a Powerball ticket, accounted for the unprecedented richness of the pot.

"Back in January, we moved Powerball from being a $1 game to $2," said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman at the game's headquarters in Iowa. "We thought at the time that this would mean bigger and faster-growing jackpots."

That proved true. The total, she said, began taking "huge jumps -- another $100 million since Saturday." It then jumped another $50 million.

The biggest Powerball pot on record until now -- $365 million -- was won in 2006 by eight Lincoln, Neb., co-workers.

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

As the latest pot swelled, lottery officials said they began getting phone calls from all around the world.

"When it gets this big," said Neubauer, "we get inquiries from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket. They ask if they can FedEx us the money."

The answer she has to give them, she said, is: "Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location."

About 80 percent of players don't choose their own Powerball number, opting instead for a computer-generated one.

Asked if there's anything a player can do to improve his or her odds of winning, Neubauer said there isn't -- apart from buying a ticket, of course.

Lottery officials put the odds of winning the $579 Powerball pot at one in 175 million, meaning you'd have been 25 times more likely to win an Academy Award.

Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, provided additional perspective: You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he said; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery.

Segueing, then, from death to life, Garibaldi noted that even the best physicians, equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, can't predict the timing of a child's birth with much accuracy.

"But let's suppose," he said, "that your doctor managed to predict the day, the hour, the minute and the second your baby would be born."

The doctor's uncanny prediction would be "at least 100 times" more likely than your winning.

Even though he knows the odds all too well, Garibaldi said he usually plays the lottery.

When it gets this big, I'll buy a couple of tickets," he said. "It's kind of exciting. You get this feeling of anticipation. You get to think about the fantasy."

So, did he buy two tickets this time?

"I couldn't," he told ABC News. "I'm in California" -- one of eight states that doesn't offer Powerball.

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Keeping the financial regulators on their toes

When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown.

Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued dozens of reports examining the flaws and offering recommendations to improve the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout fund, the Wall Street regulatory reform law and the initiatives to prevent housing foreclosures.

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Hilton chef charged with corruption

SINGAPORE: A senior chef of Hilton Singapore Hotel was charged with two counts of corruption on Wednesday.

Go Choon Heng, 41, allegedly accepted a total of about S$4,500 in bribes, in exchange for furthering the business interests of a seafood supplier, Tay Ee Tiong.

He's alleged to have committed the offences on 13 March 2009 and 18 June 2009.

In exchange, Go allegedly ensured that Hilton Singapore Hotel bought its seafood from Wealthy Seafood Product and Enterprise, owned by Tay.

If convicted, Go faces the maximum fine of S$100,000 and a jail term of five years.

- CNA/ck

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Zee News denies allegations, terms arrests an attack on press freedom

NEW DELHI: Zee News on Wednesday vehemently denied all allegations of extortion levelled against it and described the arrests of two of its senior journalists as a "crude and direct attack on the freedom of the press".

In a statement, Zee News accused Delhi Police of acting at the behest of Congress MP Naveen Jindal. The channel accused Naveen Jindal of trying to divert attention from 'coalgate'.

Delhi Police's crime branch arrested two editors of the Zee group on Tuesday, acting on a complaint by Congress MP Naveen Jindal who had accused the two of trying to extort Rs 100 crore worth of advertisements from his company in return for dropping stories linking the Jindal group with coalgate.

The arrested journalists are Sudhir Chaudhary and Sameer Ahluwalia, editorial heads of Zee news and Zee business channels, respectively, a senior police officer said.

"Prima facie evidence of criminal conspiracy and extortion has been found against the two leading to their arrest," said S B S Tyagi, DCP, crime branch on Tuesday.

The editors had earlier denied the charges, calling it an attempt to target investigative journalism.

Police said the arrests came after forensic experts submitted a report stating the CD submitted by the MP which contained audio and video recording of conversations between the Zee editors and Jindal's officials, was "not doctored". Jindal had claimed to have done a "reverse sting" on the journalists to expose them.

The inter-state cell of crime branch said it had found other conclusive evidence against the Zee journalists.

"The two editors were called for questioning on Tuesday during which they could not give satisfactory answers to our questions. They were informed around 8.30pm about their arrest after four hours of questioning. They will be produced in a Saket court at 2pm on Wednesday," a senior cop said.

The channel accused the Jindal Steel and Power Limited, owned by Congress MP Naveen Jindal, of "using state machinery, controlled by the Congress party both at the centre and Delhi, to muzzle voices of dissent and interfere with the legitimate rights of the Media to divert attention and cloud its illegalities and misdeeds which these editors in the channel sought to highlight in public interest, highlighting the corruption in the coal gate scam after being indicted by CAG, and being investigated by the CBI."

In a statement, the company said: "After over 65 years of independence, now the present Congress-led government is pushing media not to say the truth and gag its mouth. It is practically Emergency revisited in India today on Nov 27, 2012 (this will be known as another black day in Indian history).

"While the matter is sub-judice before the Hon'ble high court of Bombay, to circumvent the judicial process and the orders of the Hon'ble Mumbai high court, the Delhi police at the behest of its Congress MP orchestrated arrests of two senior editors of Zee News Channel, Sameer Ahluwalia and Sudhir Chaudhary, on the basis of a fraudulent and contrived complaint filed on behalf of his company Jindal Steel and Power Limited.

"The arrests have been made to sensationalize the issue and lend a cover to the coalgate scam and in particular to favour of Shri Naveen Jindal, Congress MP and his company M/S Jindal Steel and Power Limited."

"This is a crude and direct attack on the freedom of the press."

"The FIR registered against the two Editors and others, is nothing but a clever attempt to divert attention from its own role in the scam. The channel vehemently denies all allegations levelled against it.

The channel strongly condemns the arbitrary and illegal action of Delhi Police in arresting its two editors and for initiating a malicious, illegal and motivated prosecution. We wish to reiterate that no offence has been committed by members of staff," the statement said.

(With inputs from IANS)

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation India

A young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.

Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian authorities.

"They have taken it very well. They've not been defensive," Sreenivasan said.

"You're not dealing with national property, you're dealing with international property, which helped us put pressure on [them]." (Related: "Asia's Wildlife Trade.")

According to Conservation India, the same day the group filed their report with the government, a fresh order banning Amur hunting was issued. Local officials also began meeting with village leaders, seizing traps and confiscating birds. The national government has also requested an end to the hunting.

Much remains to be done, but because the hunt is so regional, Sreenivasan hopes it can eventually be contained and stamped out. Authorities there, he said, are planning a more thorough investigation next year, with officials observing, patrolling, and enforcing the law.

"This is part of India where there is some amount of acceptance on traditional bush hunting," he added. "But at some point, you draw the line."

(Related: "Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa's Animals, Poor?")

Published November 27, 2012

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Petraeus Scandal: Socialite Jill Kelley Fighting Back

Tampa socialite Jill Kelley is fighting back. Today, sources close to the woman who was caught in the media crossfire during the David Petraeus sex scandal have released new letters aimed at reclaiming her reputation.

In a letter released to reporters by Jill Kelley's spokesperson, Kelley's attorney goes after a New York businessman who claimed Kelley was using her connections to Petraeus to broker a deal with the South Korean government.

"It is impossible to overlook your attempt to get your '15 minutes of fame,'" attorney Abbe Lowell wrote to Adam Victor, the president and CEO of TransGas Development Systems. "…You have the right to do that to yourself, but you do not have the right to defame our client.

"This letter is notice to you that statements you have made are false and defamatory and are intended to portray Ms. Kelley in a false light," the letter continued.

Click Here to Read Past Blotter Coverage: Jill Kelley Emails Show Her Eager to Make Multi-Billion Dollar Deal

Victor has claimed that Kelley asked for $80 million in commissions to arrange a deal between Victor and the South Korean government. Kelley was an honorary consul for the Republic of South Korean.

"While it is certainly true that Ms. Kelley communicated with you about a potential business deal, it has nothing to do with General Petraeus or other military," Lowell wrote Victor.

Kelley was stripped of her ceremonial position as honorary consul for South Korea today, according to South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun.

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"It is not suitable to the status of honorary consul that [she] sought to be involved in commercial projects and peddle influence," Kyou-hyun told South Korea's semi-official Yonhap News Agency.

The dealings between Jill Kelley and Adam Victor were detailed in a series of emails between the two made public earlier this month. The emails appeared to confirm the New York businessman's claim that Kelley wanted a huge fee for brokering a transaction with the South Korean government.

But in his letter to Victor, Lowell denies that Kelley wanted anything close to $80 million, and says the full chain of emails reveal that "it was you (Victor) who were trying to capitalize on her contacts, and not the other way around."

Kelley and Victor were introduced at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August by Kelley's friend, Tampa real estate developer Don Phillips. In an interview with ABC News, Phillips said he suggested that Kelley and Victor should meet because Kelley could help Victor land a deal for a coal gasification plant in South Korea.

Phillips claimed that Kelley said that Victor tried to "proposition" her "almost immediately," and said he had to cajole her into flying to New York for a second meeting with Victor.

After she met with Victor in New York, Phillips said, Kelley reported that she was no longer interested in pursuing the deal. According to Phillips, she said, "As a result of my personal investigations and business intelligence this is just not going anywhere, Don, and you just don't want to associate with this guy."

Victor, who denies propositioning Kelley, claimed she continued pushing for the deal after their meeting in New York. But sources close to Kelley say that telephone voice messages Victor left for Kelley reveal that he was the one who continued to seek Kelley's involvement, even after the Petraeus affair came to light.

Victor also claims that Kelley told him Petraeus arranged for her to be named honorary consul, and that she could use her connections with high-level Korean officials to help land the coal plant deal.

None of the emails that Victor showed to ABC News mention Petraeus. Kelley's friend Don Phillips told ABC News that Kelley has not "in any way tried to profit" from her relationship with Petraeus.

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